Adventism

Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity which started in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher William Miller claimed that the Second Coming of Jesus would occur between 1843 and 1844. The belief in the imminent Second Coming ("Second Advent") motivated the Adventists, but, after the "Great Disappointment" that followed the lack of the Second Coming, the Adventist movement split into smaller groups, including Miller's followers, the Millerites. There are debates over whether death is unconscious sleep or consciousness, whether the wicked are annihilated or eternally tormented, the nature of immorality, whether the wicked are resurrected after the millennium, and whether the sanctuary in Daniel 8 is in heaven or on Earth. In 2010, Adventism had 22 million believers, with 19 million belonging to the Seventh-day Adventists.